The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-04-23
BASE BALL.
The Opening of the Season in Port
land.
poRrIANns. 15. nowpoIys. 4

PoRTLANDs, Is; B0wDoINs, 8.
The base ball season opened in this city
Thursday most auspiciously. There was
the largest crowd present that ever attended
game in this city, the number coming but
few short Of 1000. The field was SO crowded
with spectators that the players were
obliged to run over the people almost to
field the ball. The grounds were in good
condition taking into consideration what
they were only few days ago but were
still rather soft and hindered the players
somewhat in their base running A large
lot of sand had been dumped and spread
over the muddy places and rendered them
little more comfortable for the spectators to
stand in.
gave concert of an hour, and the fine music
1t rendered passed the time away very
quickly. The BOwd0ins appeared on the
grounds short time before the hour adver-
tised for the game and were greeted with
applause. Their uniforms were blue and
white and the club presented fine appear
on the field. After they had praeticed a
short time the Portlands made their ap-
peared and were greeted with round after
round OF applause. They marched in two by
two, headed by Manager Spence, and looked
fine in their new uniforms. The band
played q march and the club proceeded TO
the newly erected Flagstaff and there hoisted
the pennant won last season. Under
meath was raised the American flag.
the band playing the 'Star Spangled Ban
ner' as the two were unfurled to the breeze,
the crowd joining in an uproar of applause
The pennant is Of red bunting. 15x20 feet in
size, and has in letters Of white the words:
PORTLAND
CHAMPIONS
S6-87.
After raising the flags the club went to
their positions on the field and commenced
practicing The first ball thrown to Schoe-
neck was one high and to one side, but he
took it with his left hand, and followed up
the catch with so many more difficult ones
that the spectators went nearly wild over
him. Hatfield as one of the old favOrites
was the recipient Of much applause. To say
that Manager Spence was well received
would be putting 1t mildly, as the audience
expressed their appreciation Of his efforts in
an earnest manner as soon as he appeared
on the field. The new men were closely
scrutinized and appeared well under such
circumstances.
The game was called by Umpire Barton
few minutes before O'Clock. The Bowdoins
presented as their battery MoultOn and BOu-
telle, the former doing excellent work in the
box. The Bowdoins are much stronger than
last year, their outfed being notieeably so.
The Portlands were to play all their men, but
Burns was lame, and 1t was not deemed ad-
yisable for him to play. Quinn pitched the
nrst Tour innings, with Duffy as catcher, and
was very effective, only two safe hits being
made off his delivery. Small, with Thayer
as catcher, finished the game and was less
effective. The Bowdoins scored only in one
inning, however, the sixth, getting all five Of
their runs. Two bases on balls, two hits,
wild throw, tumble and muff were the cause
OF them. With the exception of this inning
the Bowdoins could do nothing.
The Portlands opened well, Andrus lead
ing off with two-bagger to left field, and
Dickerson following with one of the same
sort. The Portlands fell off a little in bat
ting towards the latter part of the game, but
the score shows that they did excellent work
with the bat. Quinn hit the ball for home
run, but 1t struck tree and bounded inside.
Barbour took Spence's place on second in
the sixth inning.
The team, as whole, created very fa-
yorable impression. They are heavy batters
and excellent base runners, and their field
ing was excellent for such condition of the
grounds. The impression was that they
were little too weak in the box, but the
game Small pitched against the Stars yester-
day Will tend to show that Manager Spence
has some idea of what he is about in that di-
recti0n. 1t Is little too early yet to Judge
all the men, but 1t was plain enough to see
that Mr.. Spenee's assertion that he had a
strong team was well grounded Following
IL the detailed score:
PoRTLANDs.